Misunderstandings
by mccabebabe
Summary: (Prentiss, Jareau, Reid/Max) This story is set in what I'm envisioning for the beginning of season 15. I'm employing the same time jump the producers said would be occurring between the end of season 14 and beginning of season 15. To that end, it has been six months since the Rossi wedding. Reid, Prentiss and JJ overcome some misunderstandings


Misunderstanding

CM fanfiction

(Prentiss, Jareau, Reid/Max)

This story is set in what I'm envisioning for the beginning of season 15.

I'm employing the same time jump the producers said would be occurring between the end of season 14 and beginning of season 15. To that end, it has been six months since the Rossi wedding.

Reid, Prentiss and JJ overcome some misunderstandings

My thanks go out to speedybetatester autumn! Thanks for the numerous catches of silly mistakes!

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_Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding_. Diane Arbus 

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Giving her phone a dismissive look, Unit Chief Emily Prentiss shoved the offending device back into a pocket and released a long sigh. As she walked around the round table, most of the members of her team arrived in the conference room. Agents Jennifer Jareau, Matt Simmons, Tara Lewis and Luke Alvez all took their seats but Prentiss motioned Senior Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi aside. The unit's technical analyst, Penelope Garcia, arrived and made her way to the front of the room. She distributed several photographs amongst the other agents and the group waited patiently as Prentiss finished her quick conversation with Rossi.

Nodding, she waved acknowledgement of the other team members and thanked Rossi, "I appreciate you taking lead on this case, Dave. Now, I'm gonna go track down Reid."

At the mention of his name, Agent Jareau rose from her seat and followed as Prentiss left the conference room.

"Emily?" she called lightly. Prentiss stopped and pivoted.

"What's up, JJ?"

"Is something wrong with Spence?"

For the second time in as many minutes, Prentiss sighed deeply. She motioned for JJ to follow her to her office and shut the door behind them.

"I just don't know. He's not answering his phone. Didn't reply to my texts. I've tried him five times in the last hour or so, JJ. It's just not like him to at least acknowledge a text. And honestly, I've texted him a couple times in the last week and gotten no answer."

JJ was near tears.

"JJ!" Prentiss saw her agent's expression and was instantly concerned. "What the hell—?"

"Emily," she paused, bit her lip and wondered just where to begin with what she wanted to tell her supervisor.

Prentiss ushered her to a seat on the office sofa and sat beside her. "Spill," she directed.

"We—Spence and I—had a bit of a misunderstanding," she started as her eyes welled up. "I told him something and I think it was kinda misinterpreted and instead of making it better, I made it worse. And Emily, basically, I haven't spoken to Spence since Rossi's wedding."

"What!?" Prentiss exclaimed in surprise that these two best friends weren't speaking. "But that was months ago! I mean, doesn't he usually do some things with your boys over the summer and," Prentiss trailed off.

JJ shook her head sadly, "No, not this year. Anyway, I've been calling and texting him for days now too, and he hasn't replied to me either. I thought it was just because of, because of what happened. But now, I'm worried there's something wrong, Emily."

She stopped to compose herself, take a deep breath and continued, "I mean, even if he's mad at _me_, I doubt Spence would take that out on Henry and Michael."

"Yeah, he's not the petty type," Prentiss agreed. "Hang on just a sec," she directed JJ. She took her phone out of her pocket and sent a text, then lowered the phone and raised her eyes to meet those of Agent Jareau. "Dave is taking the team on this case. You and I are gonna find out what the hell's going on with Spence." Again, Prentiss punched Reid's cell number into her phone, waited and again there was no reply.

The two women looked at each other. "I'm _really _worried, Emily."

"You still have keys to his apartment, Jayje?"

"I do."

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"I'm sorry," she drawled as she trailed a line of kisses across his collarbone and arrived at his left ear, nipping its lobe gently. "I shouldn't be taking advantage of you like this," she whispered, lying in his bed next to him.

He chuckled slightly as he replied, "S'okay. I'm not sick anymore. You took such good care of me, Max. I'm just tired." He brought his arm up and turned her, pulling her closer against him, and leaning his head down to kiss the top of hers. Releasing a contented sigh, he murmured quietly, "I love you so much."

She ran her hand along his bare chest and repeated his declaration; "I love you too, Spence," before lifting her face to meet his and kissing him soundly. His hands moved to cup her face as they kissed and the room was still for several minutes before they finally broke apart, both breathless.

As she turned, Max glanced at the bedside clock and gasped, "Oh crap! It's way late!"

"What's late?" Spencer asked her.

"Your meds! I _promised _your doctor I would make sure they were taken on time!" She scrambled out of bed, and raced into the bathroom for the pills and then hurried out to the kitchen to get a glass of water before returning to the bedroom and making sure her charge took his prescriptions.

"It can't be _that_ bad," Spencer decided, rising to a sitting position while she ran back and forth.

"I completely lost track of time while we were, you know," she blushed.

"While we were making love?" He fought the urge to laugh, knowing full well that he was just as self-conscious as she was.

"Spence!" she chided and immediately relented. "You were supposed to take those two hours ago," she indicated the pills in his hand.

He accepted the water glass from her, popped the pills in his mouth and took a long swallow of water to wash them down. "There. Better?"

"You're perfect," she answered.

His forehead creased but before he could voice his opposition to that statement and present multiple examples of evidence refuting it, she bent and kissed him again. Drawing back, Max pushed him back down onto the bed.

"Go to sleep, baby," she crooned, "That medication is gonna make you sleepy anyway."

He looked at her through hooded eyes and nodded. "Some vacation this has been for you. I'm sorry—"

"Shhh," she commanded, putting a finger on his lips. "I got to spend the entire time with you."

"Yeah. Me. Sick for the last five days."

He was obviously not in the mood for any sort of discussion about taking the good with the bad, so Max just dismissed the subject. "Sleep," she ordered, stroking his cheek and then drawing the covers up over his naked body, tucking the blanket in place. "I'm just gonna go out there and get some work done, and you're gonna call me if you need anything, sweetheart."

"Yes, ma'am," he responded, offering her a smile before closing his eyes. She pulled on her camisole and a pair of Spencer's pajama pants and padded out to the living room, closing the bedroom door behind her.

An hour later, Max was settled on the sofa with her open laptop in her lap and the coffee carafe sitting on the low table in front of her. She set her iPhone down, having finally caught up with her text messages and missed calls.

"Geez, Spence will probably have a zillion missed texts and calls too," she commented offhandedly." His cellphone was still in his messenger bag, which was hanging on the arm of the sofa. "Dammit," she said aloud as it occurred to her that the phone's battery was probably dead. The device hadn't been consulted in the five days since Spencer had taken ill. She wondered briefly if she should remove it from the bag and set it in its charger but she didn't want to disturb her sleeping boyfriend, and the charger was in the bedroom. Max made a mental note to ask him about it once he awakened. The old rotary phone on Spencer's desk rang a few times over the last few days. None of the callers had left any messages, she knew, as there was no blinking indicator light on his ancient answering machine either. Max had debated shutting the ringer off, but decided against that. What if Spencer's Mom's doctors were trying to call?

Her attention returned to her computer. "Brachiosaurus and the Mesozoic Era," she muttered absently as she continued her research. She sipped at her coffee as she made notes and stopped working long enough to check on Spencer.

"Still sleeping," she smiled happily and made her way into the kitchen, pausing in the living room for the empty coffee carafe. After cleaning it out, she set it aside and decided to make some soup for Spencer's lunch. He hadn't eaten properly in several days due to his illness but the fever had finally broken the previous evening and now Max was determined to see that he received some nourishment of substance. She washed mushrooms and left them to simmer in a pot of water on the stove while she made the soup base. Too late, she realised Spencer's kitchen didn't include a food processor and she set about the laborious task of finely chopping the cooked mushrooms with a knife.

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"Are you gonna tell me about it?" Prentiss asked as she maneuvered the SUV through the downtown DC traffic. She glanced over at JJ, whose attention seemed far off in the distance out the passenger window.

Prentiss drove on and stole a glance over at JJ. She stopped at a light and looked over to her companion again. JJ sighed deeply before turning in her seat to face Emily.

"I told him I've always loved him," JJ divulged in a quiet voice.

Emily's gaze met JJ's as she acknowledged, "We all love him, J—OH!" as it dawned on her. Suddenly, JJ's earlier revelation and the implications made sense to her.

"Yeah," JJ affirmed. "I mean I _do _love him, more than most anyone else. He is, he _was _my best friend. And I don't even know where our friendship stands at the moment, Emily. I love Spence. But I love Will and my boys and my marriage and my life and I'm not about to change that. Ever. But I miss the closeness I have—had—with Spence. And I don't know whether the silence between us is because he's mad at me or he's deliberately keeping distance so," she paused.

"Because he loves you too. And doesn't want to come between you and Will." Emily inserted. "And he just wouldn't." The light turned green and Emily proceeded through the intersection.

"I know."

"But that doesn't mean he has to cut himself off from you guys altogether."

JJ nodded slightly, and whispered, "I know," in an anguished tone.

"Sounds to me like the two of you need to have this conversation."

"I know," JJ said resignedly. "But he won't even answer my calls or texts."

After making her turn, Emily drove up to the curb in front of Reid's apartment building. "Well, hopefully, he'll be at home here and you two can have this conversation face to face," she said as she parked the car.

After opening the building's front door with the key, the two profilers made their way inside and up the stairs to Reid's second floor apartment.

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Carefully, Max whisked the milk into the roué in the saucepan. A knock at the door startled her and she paused whisking for a moment while she pondered how to proceed. "Dammit" she muttered under her breath, not wanting to shout out to the caller and disturb Spencer and unwilling to leave her soup at a crucial point in its production. By the time she decided to take the pan off the burner and answer the door, she heard a key in the lock and the door opened.

Thinking it was the landlord, Max hurried out to the front hall to intercept him and came face to face with two women.

The taller of the two was a dark haired woman whose presence exuded authority and her slightly shorter blonde haired companion was holding a set of keys, one of which was obviously Spencer's apartment key.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry," the blonde sputtered as her eyes locked with Max'.

The brunette stepped forward, offered her hand and introduced herself, "I'm Emily, and this is JJ. We work with Spencer."

"Max," she replied, taking Emily's hand and shaking it.

Emily took in the sight of Max' outfit. The pajama pants—obviously Reid's—and a smile drew across her face. Max realised what Emily was thinking and blushed.

"I've been lazy. Been working," she waved a hand over in the direction of her computer, "And didn't bother getting dressed today." As she spoke, she realised she'd just divulged something else and blushed further.

Emily smiled and JJ looked uncomfortable, Max noticed.

"We're sorry to let ourselves in like this, we were just worried because Reid—Spencer—hasn't been answering our calls or texts."

Max nodded her acknowledgment. "He's been really sick. We were all set to go on vacation and he came down with a fever and it was really bad for a couple days. I took him to the doctor last week and I've been looking after him. I didn't realise anyone else had keys to his apartment."

JJ finally found her voice, "Yeah, I, uh was given a set a couple years ago." She stopped abruptly; unsure how much of Reid's past to divulge.

Max seemed satisfied with that answer and indicated the bedroom. "He's sleeping now. Did you need to speak to him?" She directed her question to Emily, having recognised her name to be that of Reid's boss.

"No, it's fine, Max. We were just worried about him because he wasn't answering."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. That's kinda my fault. I left his phone in his messenger bag while he was sick. And the battery's probably dead by now." She wondered whether she should be offering the two of them some coffee and Emily broke into her thoughts.

"Of course, I could've left a message on his landline, but honestly, it's usually faster to get a text."

There was an awkward silence where the three women were unsure how to proceed and then the bedroom door opened and Spencer walked into the living room.

His brow furrowed when his eyes lit upon Prentiss and Jareau as he made his way to stand beside Max and draw an arm around her.

"You okay?" Max asked him and he nodded before acknowledging his coworkers.

"Hi Emily. JJ. I'm guessing you guys have introduced yourselves," he started. Giving Max a squeeze, he introduced them all anyway. "Emily Prentiss, my friend and boss. Jennifer Jareau, my friend and colleague. This is Max, my best friend and soul mate."

Smiles were exchanged all around and Emily stole a glance at JJ who seemed to show some relief at being called 'friend' by Spencer. The Unit Chief turned her attention back to the couple.

"Sorry to intrude, Spence, but we were expecting you back to work this morning. And we haven't been able to contact you for days," Prentiss offered. Before he could reply, Prentiss assured him, "It's okay. Max here explained you've been sick."

She smiled at them all, and then added, "Obviously Max has everything under control here and our visit was," she paused for a word and finally settled on "intrusive."

"Oh no, don't say that," Max interjected. "Well-intentioned," she supplied.

"Thank you for your understanding," Emily told them, and taking JJ's arm, with the intention of propelling them both towards the apartment's door, "We'll be on our way now, right, JJ?"

As JJ nodded, Emily apologised again for the intrusion and finished with "It was great to meet you though, Max."

Max shook both their hands and Spencer spoke up,

"Thank you for checking up on me guys. And," he sought out eye contact with JJ, "Michael's birthday is coming up next week. JJ, can I take the boys to the Zoo for the day next Saturday?"

A broad smile crossed Jennifer Jareau's face. "That would be awesome, Spence. They will love that. And so will I. Thank you."

He reached out to hug her. "No. Thank _you."_

"For what?" she whispered when his head was next to hers.

"Helping me find love. I'll explain that to you at work someday."

He stepped back from the hug with JJ and enveloped Max in both arms. They watched as the door closed behind Spencer's two other best friends in the world.

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